There’s are reasons why Nell Cross Beckerman’s books are widely praised and regularly honored, and those reasons are visible in the 2025 nonfiction picture book Forests.
As the title suggests, this book is about forests. It starts in the woods at night, where a few humans around a camp fire hear and then spot an owl. From there we follow kids exploring the forest and their senses. The book moves as a leisurely pace at first, as fits with wilderness exploration, and then the text splits into two tracks. The larger print, aimed directly at kids, is simple, just a few words per page, and lets Kalen Chock’s illustrations carry the mood. They give a great feel of what forests can be. The other text track is clearly aimed at adults; it is in smaller font, and lower on the page, and is dense with information. One can imagine parents or teachers reading this block, and explaining/translating sections of it to the kids.
The book takes the idea of forests in surprising directions. Readers sample the Sagano Bamboo Forest of Japan, California’s redwoods, Poland’s Crooked Forest (where hundreds of bent pines are found), and stranger forests, like the temporary wonder of migrating Monarch butterflies, and the underwater kelp forests of the Pacific.
Along the way, Beckerman educates on what human technology is doing to forests, and makes a plea for people to act to protect these natural wonders.
